The labor and Nina’s first day

So to fill in from last night..  Rachel was in labor for 42 hrs, and started active labor around 3pm yesterday. After she hit the 4 hr mark of active labor, the Dr said that at this point it’s pretty unlikely that the baby would come out by itself.

The baby was basically stuck at the pelvic bone, and wasn’t going to come out, no matter how much pushing we did, and by that point, Rachel was pretty exhausted anyway.

It was my first time in a surgical procedure where I was awake for it. And it was very interesting to see, although I couldn’t see much as they has a screen that blocked the view, Rachel didn’t want to see any of it, and I was on her side of the screen to make her feel more comfortable.

She slept through the whole process, though, and she was really doped up and tired from everything. I peeked over the screen to see the baby once she was out. There was a lot of blood everywhere, but I was really focused on the baby.

Nina was very awake when she came out, she cried at first, and then she was very quiet and eyes open for a long time. It took a lot while for Rachel to recover enough to feed Nina, but she had a good feeding and they both went to sleep.

Nina was having a hard time sleeping, so I laid her next to me all night and she slept well. Just needed someone close to her.

We all slept very late and deep, and the next morning the lactation consultant came in, and it was the same one we had the class with. She was really happy to see us, and gave Rachel some tips on her technique.

We received some pretty flowers from my mom and dad, and Rachel’s parents were really really happy and excited.

Rachel has been recovering well and eating normal food now. The incision was about 12 inches long, and she was just able to have the catheter removed and walk on her own.

She still has to be careful and laughing is very painful, so it’s her bad luck to have me for a husband.

But I can’t help it. When the nurse comes in as says, while looking at me, “how’s breastfeeding going?” Of course I’m going to say, ” it’s going ok, but the baby is still having some latching issues and she’s not really getting much milk from me.” While grabbing my man-boobs…

And there is that moment of confusion by the nurse, and Rachel starts laughing, followed by “Ow! Ow! Ow!”

But what else can I say, really? You don’t pass up on a joke like that.

I’ve also changed 2 diapers in the last day… Been a really long time since I’ve done that!

And now, it’s been exactly 24 hours since Nina was born, she is sleeping sound, her mother is texting with her family, and I’m doing this post. It’s nice to have some down time.

Also, thank you all for the comments! We really haven’t had time to respond, but we do appreciate them!